Jardines Galleries · Mint History · 1893 – 1900
The Pretoria Mint.
The first mint established on South African soil and one of the strongest symbolic statements of ZAR sovereignty. From corrected single-shaft circulation gold to the legendary Boer War emergency issues, the Pretoria Mint carried the Republic's numismatic identity through its most consequential final years — and produced, in its closing months, the two most famous gold rarities in all of South African numismatics.
It is also the right place to tell the Single 9 and Double 99 story. Those coins were not floating glamour pieces — they were products of this mint, under wartime pressure, when normal dating methods had broken down and improvisation became unavoidable.
The Single 9 Pond
1899 · Pretoria · Wartime emergencyThe greatest individual rarity in South African numismatics. With the Anglo-Boer War cutting Pretoria off from its Berlin die supplier, the mint took an existing 1898 Pond die and punched a single oversized "9" over the "8" of the original date. Only one coin was struck before the design was abandoned — the punch was deemed too prominent, and a smaller "99" replacement was prepared.
That single survivor stands above the normal hierarchy of rare-date or key-type pieces and enters the territory of national icon. It has long held the highest auction price ever achieved by a South African coin.
— One known specimen —The Double 99 Pond
1899 · Pretoria · Smaller punch runAfter the oversized single digit was abandoned, a smaller "99" punch was used for the remaining emergency pieces. That created the famous Double 99 Pond — the obtainable counterpart to the unique Single 9, and one of the great destination coins of the South African series.
Both types share the same mint, the same die-stock, the same wartime context. The Double 99 is what most serious ZAR collectors will realistically pursue; the Single 9 is what they will read about. Together they are the climax of the Pretoria Mint's eight-year story.
The Mint as sovereignty
A statement in metalThe Pretoria Mint was a deliberate assertion of sovereignty by President Paul Kruger and the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek. Before its establishment, ZAR coins were struck abroad — the first 1892 issues at the Berlin Mint, by Otto Schultz. Once the Pretoria facility was equipped and operational, the Republic could produce its own gold, silver, and bronze coinage on South African soil, and give physical form to its independence.
Its importance lies not only in mintages, machinery, or location — but in continuity. The Pretoria Mint links the corrected regular issues of the 1890s, the later war-year coinage, and the emergency stamped gold pieces that became the most famous rarities in all South African numismatics. It is, effectively, the hinge on which ZAR-era numismatics turn.
Production profile
Eight denominations · 1893 – 1900The Pretoria Mint produced eight regular denominations across its operational years — two gold, five silver, and one bronze. The denomination-by-denomination breakdown below sets the stage for the wartime emergency gold that closes the page.
| Denomination | Metal | Years | Role in series |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Pond | Gold | 1893 – 1900 | Primary ZAR gold denomination of the later mint period. |
| ½ Pond | Gold | 1893 – 1897 | Scarcer and more selective date run than many collectors assume. |
| 2½ Shillings | Silver | 1893 – 1897 | Key upper silver denomination of the Pretoria output. |
| 2 Shillings | Silver | 1893 – 1897 | Regular circulation silver of the Republic. |
| 1 Shilling | Silver | 1893 – 1897 | Broadly collected; foundational to ZAR silver sets. |
| 6 Pence | Silver | 1893 – 1897 | Workhorse fractional silver. |
| 3 Pence | Silver | 1893 – 1897 | Small silver type, important for date collectors. |
| 1 Penny | Bronze | 1893 – 1898 | Base-metal circulation issue from the mint era. |
Key dates & rarities
Within the regular gold runsBeyond the wartime emergency pieces, the regular Pretoria gold output contains its own structural rarities — dates whose lower mintages or transitional position in the run command sustained collector attention.
The ½ Pond series
- 1893Major key date of the later regular gold run.
- 1894A low-output scarcity that consistently deserves more respect than it gets.
- 1897Final-year structural interest — the last entry in the half-pond series.
The 1 Pond series
- 1893The corrected single-shaft Pond — the technical reset after the 1892 double-shaft debacle.
- 1899War-year importance — the year the Single 9 and Double 99 emergency issues belong to.
- 1900The final chapter of the mint under the Republic, immediately before British occupation.
The Pretoria Mint produced both the Republic's daily working coinage and its greatest numismatic legends. That dual identity is exactly what makes the mint so important.
The Berlin presses
Machinery as continuityThe mint machinery story matters because it gives the Pretoria Mint physical continuity across generations of South African coinage. The presses were not just equipment; they were the connective tissue that ran from Kruger's first 1893 strike through to the modern SA Mint in Centurion.
The Oom Paul press
The most famous surviving press connected to the ZAR minting story. Manufactured in Berlin in 1891 by the firm of Ludwig Loewe & Co. on Kruger's order, it was one of the two presses that equipped the original Pretoria Mint. It became the symbolic machine of the institution and the longest-serving press in South African mint history.
Oom Paul was finally retired in 2024, after 132 years of continuous service — across two republics, one Union, and one democratic state. It now sits on display at Coin World, the SA Mint's museum in Centurion.
Coins and presses are one story
Collectors often focus only on the coins, but presses are part of the same record. They connect ordinary circulation issues, prestige strikings, and the emergency improvisation that created the Single 9 and Double 99.
That improvisation happened on a press — these presses — and the press is the reason the wartime gold survives at all. Studying the machinery is studying the physical conditions under which the legendary rarities were made.
After the fall
The mint as institutional ancestorWhen British forces occupied Pretoria on 5 June 1900, the ZAR mint story under the Republic ended. But the broader minting legacy did not. The facility itself reopened in 1923 as a branch of the Royal Mint, under whose authority it struck Union of South Africa coinage with the "SA" mintmark for nearly two decades. In 1941, the South African government took ownership and renamed it the South African Mint — the institution that, after a 1992 relocation to Centurion, still operates today.
The Pretoria Mint is therefore not a dead chapter. It is the institutional ancestor of every coin South Africa has minted in the 125 years since. The Single 9 and Double 99 are the most spectacular things this site ever produced — but the line of operational continuity from 1893 Pretoria to 2026 Centurion is, in its quieter way, the more extraordinary fact.
Collector takeaways
Four points to carry awayThe Pretoria Mint matters for sovereignty, not just production. Its real significance is what it asserted, not just what it struck.
Its regular issues are important on their own — but the legend of the mint is completed by the Single 9 and Double 99. They are the climax, not a digression.
Read the mint as a full narrative arc: establishment, corrected coinage, wartime improvisation, and post-war institutional legacy.
For library navigation, this page is the parent-level introduction to ZAR emergency gold. Dedicated standalone pages on the Single 9 and Double 99 link back here for context.
Mintages and date ranges from the Standard Catalogue of South African Coins, Medals and Tokens (annual). The Single 9 and Double 99 coverage draws on the NGC reference article linked above and the long-standing literature on the Anglo-Boer War emergency issues. For the broader Anglo-Boer War context, see the Kruger Millions page; for the Oom Paul press's later life, see the South African Mint Today.